POP

ROBIN GHUNTER

Meet Robin Günther, swedish realisator of -The ocean-.

Rencontre avec Robin Günther, réalisateur suédois de « The ocean » .

Hello Robin! First of all, I would like to thank you very much for taking on your free time to answer our few questions for Le Mouvement Planant. I have to admit that my Ipod plays your video “The Ocean” in a loop. It does not only represent to me an extremely well done video, but furthermore, a little therapy after a bad breakup; this is why I wanted to thank you personally Thanks you! It means a lot to hear that

Can you talk about Positive Negative? What is your favorite field of work? How many are you (in this project)? Positive-Negative is a directing duo consisting of Robin Günther (me) and Maceo Frost. We both direct commercials and music videos separately but collaborate under this name for the right projects. We pick song that we really love. The main reason why we do film is for the goose bumps moment. You know, that magical feeling when you get shivering’s over your body because it is so good. The name Positive-Negative is inspired by that moment, and basically means balance.

How do you work? What are your different influences?We usually start a project with pumping the song really load and dance together. We both have been dancing for years, and that is maybe the reason why we understand each other. I think our main influences are life experiences, regardless if it is our own story or some on else.

What was the original idea for this clip? (For those who have not seen it) What’s the story? The video means different things for different people and that is the great fun when you play with symbolism. It as even change meaning for me. But the original idea is about a person who is been gone thru a break up and never got a real farewell. He wakes up in an ice cold endless landscape and can´t find his way out of the sadness. Desperate he is trying every direction, but memoires of her is everywhere, which throws him back where he just started in the sorrow. Every time he wakes up there is a golden necklace around his neck, which he tries to get rid of. Book sides fill up his pockets and it never seems to stop. Finally he gives up and decides to talk to her again. The music drops and we can only hear the wind, she looks sweeter then ever before. Like a dream. They have a long conversation witch starts gently but gradual escalates, we show it in a modern dance. In the end he calmly gives back the necklace wish as been heavy as a big chain.

Where did you shoot ? Why this place ? Was Nature an obvious choice? We shoot this on an island called Öland in Sweden. It’s about a 5 hours drive from Stockholm. We where looking for the “Troll forest”. But in the end there was to much snow and to far to walk with all the equipment. So we ended up with a typical Swedish forest, wish worked fine.

There are many symbols in this video (the necklace, the heart, the paper, the steps in the snow…); what special meanings do they have for you? The cold endless forest represents his sorrow The necklace is the symbol of his love for the girl. The big chain is to show the weight of the hart The book sides are symbolizing past memories. The steps in the snow, is to show that he has been walking in every direction before.

The breakup, the loss of the significant other and the pain it causes is a universal theme. Does this idea of universality make things easier for you, concerning your “artist’s duty” (representing people’s feelings, moving them)? A universal language is something I find really interesting but we didn’t have that in mind when we first created this video.

Finally, are you currently working on other projects? Can you tell us a little bit more about it? We are pitching on different videos right now and I am currently working on a short film. I will keep you posted